By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
Upon dismissal for our classes this semester, darkness envelops the streets as we get out of school gate. The same old view of students both in groups or alone walk towards food establishments or towards their jeepney stations. Most of us end up heading into the center of town. Long lines for jeepneys are not out of the ordinary, especially around the time when late noon gives way to the colder and windy early evenings. But in recent weeks, even when public schools are out and there are less students, the lines for jeepneys are longer.
More and more drivers opt out and end up looking for other means to survive. It is a natural reaction towards a system that will inevitably kill you. At the end of the day, many of these drivers are breadwinners, to bring home absolutely nothing is out of the question.
As a result, there are less jeepneys circulating the routes and as government agencies drag their feet in finding a solution, the people start to take it upon themselves to increase the fares they give. Just to help keep the drivers afloat. While government bureaucracy lag behind, intentionally or simply from pure incompetence.
Just like the donation drives and community pantries set up for our drivers, it is the initiatives started by the common people that reach those in need fast enough. It is fellow people on the ground and not those in air-conditioned offices in Manila.
Grass roots initiatives drive real change. Starting from the bottom, the people-centered changes remain free from greedy and selfish desires of the powerful.
The crisis that currently plagues us will not be the last. Given the state of our nation, there will be more and far worse issues that will inevitably knock on our doorstep. When that time comes, the burden to move immediately and give aid will fall into the common people, the same ones who are always targeted by crisis and emergencies.
The responsibility for the common Filipino thus includes not only the task of surviving amidst a crisis with a corruption ridden government and find someway to also help his fellow man.
The Filipino is asked to do much because that is already part of our culture.
It should be expected then that real change is also burdened by the common man. They are already asked to do what the government is supposed to, then the task of destroying an ineffective system and bettering the lives of the majority falls into the callous-ridden hands of ordinary Filipinos.
Not of smooth hands that have never known work but signing papers, but with hands that have bled and struggled for years will bring about real change. Just as ordinary Filipinos brought help to our drivers, it is they that must also help the rest and initiate a glorious transition to a better society. **
